Bảo Đại Thông Bảo
Obsolete currency of Vietnam / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Bảo Đại Thông Bảo (chữ Hán: 保大通寶; French: Sapèque Bao-Daï) was a round Copper-alloy coin with a square hole produced by the Nguyễn dynasty under French protection and was the last cash coin produced both in Vietnam and the world, this ended a long series of cast Vietnamese coinage that started with the Thái Bình Hưng Bảo in 970.[2] The cast Bảo Đại Thông Bảo were produced at the Thanh Hóa Mint, while the machine-struck variants were produced in Hanoi by the colonial French government.[3] These coins bear the name of Emperor Bảo Đại who ascended the throne in 1926 but continued the production of the earlier Khải Định Thông Bảo (啓定通寶) that bore his father's era name until 1933 when he ordered the production of new coins with his reign name, which was normal as previous Vietnamese emperors also kept producing cash coins with the inscription of their predecessors for a period of time. The cast smaller Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins with blank reverses were only valued at 1⁄600 piastre.[4]
Value | 6 văn, 10 văn[lower-alpha 1] (French Indochinese piastre) |
---|---|
Mass | machine-struck 1.40 g, cast, 6 văn 3.31 g, cast, 10 văn 4.01 g |
Composition | Copper (Brass) |
Years of minting | 1933 (1933)–1940 (1940) |
Circulation | 1933–1948 |
Obverse | |
Design | 保大通寶 (Bảo Đại Thông Bảo) |
Reverse | |
Design | Blank 6 văn (an-sau) |
Design | 十文 (thập văn)[1] 10 văn (an-muoi) |
In 1932 it was reported by L'Éveil économique de l'Indochine ("The Economic Awakening of Indochina") that cash coins were increasingly becoming scarce in Annam and Tonkin, the L'Éveil économique de l'Indochine advised the government of the Nguyễn dynasty to start producing zinc Bảo Đại Thông Bảo cash coins to counter the scarcity of low denomination currencies, at this time zinc cash coins were still circulating in Annam while very few of them were left in Tonkin.[5] During this period people were often unwilling to spend money because of the monetary scarcity of the time, economic policy advisors predicted that producing more cash coins would lower the cost of living for the population of the Nguyễn dynasty.[5]
The Bảo Đại Thông Bảo were probably cast into 1941 or 1942 and the production was stopped because the occupying Japanese forces wanted the copper and were acquiring all of the cash coins they could find and stockpiling them in Haiphong for shipment to Japan for the production of war materials.[6]
Cash coins would continue to circulate officially in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam until 1948 with an official exchange rate set of 20 cash coins for 1 đồng.[6]